Focus on

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
1. What is it?
Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a student-centred form of learning that involves
students spending sustained periods of study time exploring and attempting to
solve real-life problems. PBL has its origins in the work of John Dewey, who in 1897
published his book My Pedagogical Creed, which focused on the importance of
‘learning by doing’. More recently, PBL has been seen as an important vehicle for the
development of global skills for the 21st century, including digital literacies.

Key elements
PBL does not simply involve doing a project with your students. Most PBL sources
recognize that a project should contain a number of essential elements. These include:

■ A challenging problem or question ■ Authenticity

Clear project goals should be set, based
around addressing real-life problems or
questions that students find meaningful
and relevant to their lives.
■ Public product
The project should culminate in some
form of public product, whether
it’s a performance, presentation, or
the publication of a digital paper,
document, video, or display.
■ Key knowledge and skills
During the project, students
should acquire key knowledge and
develop a range of skills, including
critical thinking, problem solving,
communication, collaboration,
cooperation, and self-management.
■ Sustained inquiry
The project should run over a number
of lessons and involve a range of tasks
and activities that lead to the final
product.
The project goals should be focused
on ‘real world’ outcomes and goals
that have genuine relevance to the
lives of the students.
■ Student voice
Students should have some choice,
for example in deciding what problem
they should solve, how they will work
together, and what the final output of
the project will be.
■ Reflection
Students should be encouraged to
reflect on their work, considering the
obstacles they encountered and how
they overcame them to achieve the
project goals.
■ Critique and revision
Students should be encouraged to
give and receive feedback, both from
each other and the teacher, in order
to improve what they are doing and
how they are doing it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nik Peachey has worked all over the world as a language teacher, teacher trainer,
technology trainer, and educational technology consultant. He is an award-winning
course designer and materials writer and author.

© Oxford University Press www.oup.com/elt/expert 1

Project-Based Learning
2. What does it mean for the ELT classroom?
When done successfully, PBL can have a substantial positive
impact on your students and your classroom environment.
Problem solvers
Students learn how to approach, break down, and solve
problems with a good degree of independence. As well as
developing their problem-solving skills, this can have a huge
impact on the students’ motivation and self-esteem.
Broader learning
Students learn much more than just language. They learn
collaborative and negotiating skills as well as information related
to the topic of the problem they are addressing. They also
explore different types of sources and evaluate their reliability.
Real language use
Students learn to use language for genuinely communicative
purposes in contexts that reflect real life. This involves a
wider range of language practice and a more frequent use of
integrated skills than an approach to language learning based
around discrete language items.
Management skills
As they work their way through the project, students will
develop time management, organizational, and project
management skills. Many of these skills are essential for
studying and working in the 21st century.
Deeper levels of learning
PBL classrooms can be dynamic, full of students using language
to work towards motivating goals. A high level of engagement
is achieved when learners find project goals meaningful and
relatable, and this can in turn lead to deeper levels of learning.
Outcomes include improved language skills, transferable project
skills, and much better retention of learning.
© Oxford University Press www.oup.com/elt/expert
3. What are the challenges?
Covering the syllabus
One of the biggest challenges of applying PBL in the language
classroom is that of identifying projects based around
meaningful problems that will cover the breadth of the core
language syllabus. While it is possible to build projects around
getting students to explore and research a specific language
structure, consider how authentic and motivating the experience
would be for the students.
Language level
Language level can be a considerable obstacle to a PBL
approach to language learning, especially in projects where
language acquisition is achieved as a ‘by-product’ of the project
interaction. Students with a lower language level may find it
difficult to carry out the project tasks and activities. You will
need to think about how you can structure their language use,
considering when they might draw on their first language to
support the completion of the projects and when you want
them to use English only.
Group dynamics
Grouping of students needs to be handled with care and an
understanding of the dynamics between the different members
of the class. Mixed-ability groupings can work well when the
group benefits from differing skills and interests and everyone’s
contributions are valued. However, care must be taken that
some students do not dominate and prevent others from having
a voice, and that the workload is shared fairly between all group
members. It should also be ensured that group members are
able to draw on their different strengths, so that everyone is
able to contribute but no one feels they have to ‘perform down’
for the sake of their peers.
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Project-Based Learning
Time constraints
PBL is, by its nature, time consuming and it may seem difficult
to balance the time demands against wider requirements of the
syllabus.
Reflection and feedback
Reflection and self-critique/peer critique are important elements
of PBL, but these can take time to master, especially for less
experienced learners. Giving peer feedback with sensitivity can
be challenging even in our first language, so this needs to be
handled with a good degree of care.
Assessment
Because of the nature of the skills being developed, it can
appear much harder to evaluate the learning efficacy of PBL.
Many methods of assessment in mainstream education tend
to focus on the performance output at the end of the project,
but for language learning this may be less relevant than the
quality of the interaction and communication that took place in
the production of the output. Criteria that seek to evaluate the
additional skills developed through PBL might appear to burden
the process further.
Acknowledgement
A large part of the driving motivation for PBL comes from the
fact that students are working towards some form of public
display of their project output. This can stimulate a strong
desire for audience recognition and appreciation. In the case
of a public performance where parents or other teachers
are invited along, satisfying this sense of recognition and
completion can be quite straightforward, but it can be much less
so when projects result in some form of online publication or
performance. Generating and registering audience interaction
can be more difficult and students may be left feeling that their
work has not been acknowledged.
4. How can this be implemented?
Get students on board
Be sure to get students involved from the very beginning of the
project. Although you may have an idea of the kind of project
output you want students to create and the kinds of issues or
problems you want them to address, try not to impose your own
view.
Understand their passions
Find out the kinds of issues and interests that students feel
passionate about and that motivate them. You could do this
through classroom discussion or questionnaires.
Give students choice
Once students have decided on the issue they want to address,
let them choose what form of output they want to produce at
the end of the project. Again you could give them different
options to choose from. Some may prefer a form of public
performance whereas others may prefer a video, e-book, or
online poster.
© Oxford University Press www.oup.com/elt/expert
Give clear criteria
Be sure to create and share your overall project goals and
evaluation criteria with students. It should be clear to them what
they are trying to achieve, and that the quality of their input and
interaction during the project is as important as the evaluation
of the final product.
Monitor language use
Be sure to monitor students’ work closely. Listen and take notes
about any language issues or communication breakdowns that
come up as they work towards the project goal. You can then
integrate regular language clinics to provide language support
based on a clear assessment of their needs.
Balance your use of time
If you have the time and flexibility within your course, you could
take the opportunity to build your whole course around PBL.
However, if you have a syllabus that students need to cover, you
can just make it a part of your course. You could have a specific
time each week for project work and then spend the rest of the
time working through the syllabus.
Build in time for reflection and peer feedback
You may want to let students reflect and give feedback in
their first language, especially if they are lower-level learners.
If you get them to do it in English, be sure to give them some
appropriate structures so that they can write their reflections or
deliver their feedback in a positive and supportive way.
Involve other schools and classes
Get your students involved in projects with other classes
and schools, especially if you can use technology to connect
them with students in other countries. This can be a great
way of making the projects more authentic and genuinely
communicative as well as great vehicles for developing
collaboration skills, intercultural competences, and digital
literacies.
5. Over to you
It’s clear that despite the many challenges involved in applying
PBL to the language classroom, if done in a carefully structured
way and with the right support, PBL can have a transformative
impact on the experience of your students. This in turn could
provide a rewarding experience for you as a teacher.
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Project-Based Learning

6. Further reading Talking points

13 Brilliant Outcomes of Project-Based Learning What kinds of problems do you think your students
https://www.teachthought.com/project-based-learning/ would be interested in solving?
outcomes-of-project-based-learning-pbl/
What would be an achievable project you could try as
Twenty Ideas for Engaging Projects an experiment?
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/20-ideas-for-engaging- What do you think would be the main challenges
projects-suzie-boss of using PBL with your classes and how could you
Gold Standard PBL: Essential Project Design Elements overcome them?
https://www.bie.org/blog/gold_standard_pbl_essential_ What new skills would you need to develop to
project_design_elements successfully implement this approach?
How Can We Survive on Mars? What would be the most exciting thing about
https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-can-we-survive-mars implementing this approach with your students?
Describe what a successful PBL output would look like
Boosting Student Engagement Through Project-Based
for your students.
Learning
https://www.edutopia.org/article/boosting-student-
engagement-through-project-based-learning

TBL and PBL: Two Learner-Centred Approaches

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/tbl-pbl-two-
learner-centred-approaches

Applying PBL to English Language Teaching and Learning

https://beginswithaproblem.wordpress.com/what-is-pbl/
applying-pbl-to-english-language-teaching-and-learning/

4 Ways to Use Project-Based Learning to Support English

Language Learners
https://www.gettingsmart.com/2016/03/project-based-
learning-supports-english-language-learners/

Social media groups for teachers interested in PBL

Project Based Learning
https://www.facebook.com/Pblsite
The Buck Institute for Education ISBN: 978 0 19 420038 7 ISBN: 978 0 19 420042 4
www.oup.com/elt/teacher/itc www.oup.com/elt/teacher/itc
https://www.facebook.com/biepbl
Introducing Project-Based Learning in your Classroom –
Teacher Academy
https://www.facebook.com/groups/
projectbasedlearningcourse

Twitter accounts to follow

https://twitter.com/BIEpbl
https://twitter.com/lisamireles
https://twitter.com/deeperlearning

Hashtags to search or follow

#pbl  #projectbasedlearning  #inquiry

Acknowledgements
The publisher would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce photographs:
OUP p3 (office equipment/Shutterstock/Africa Studio), Shutterstock p1 (abstract
background/Tanor), p2 (students/SpeedKingz).

© Oxford University Press www.oup.com/elt/expert 4